Chapter 48

Chapter 48

Translator: wuttisyun

It would be great if I could escape.

I liked reading angst and mystery novels. However, I had never imagined myself to have become the main character in an angsty or mystery novel.

But now I realised I was in a novel that was both.

Crash.

The glass that Granius had cherished so much just broke.

Honestly, I had regressed more than 40 times in this angsty romance novel. If an ability to be angsty existed then I would have obtained it by now though it would be better if I had not mastered it at all.

I was not quite sure though. I had been accumulating experience points so far and I might be able to level up today.

It started when I arrived at the office an hour ago. The first thing I would usually do in the office was to open the window, empty out the trash bin and clean up the empty liquor bottles gathered at the corner of the office. However, something different happened today.

A client had already arrived in the office before me.

“Uh, who are you? Are you here for Sir Granius?”

I had first asked who he was as it would be a big problem if I later did something rude to him somehow. No matter how I looked at it, someone who was wearing all black, a mask with holes only for the eyes and fully black boots to complete the look could only be a thief or a robber.

The unidentified man who had been looking through the bookshelves in the Aedile’s office for quite some time looked surprised to see me. He seemed to have been very focused on his search for something. Everything on the desk and on the floor were completely out of place as if it had been intentionally made messy.

Glass pieces seemed to have scattered all across the floor which seemed quite dangerous. Did I have to clean up this whole mess? I did not feel like dealing with it but an invasive thought kept throbbing in my head.

“Are you a thief or a robber?”

The eyes that looked back at me were cold and blue in colour. If his eyes had been crazed with madness, I would have assumed he was Castor but he seemed to be observing me calmly and agonising over something. ‘Should I kill her?’ I knew it was strange the moment he touched his blade. His eyes burned up as easily as a tree.

As soon as I saw his beastly gaze, I knew he was going to kill me.

Just then, the man kicked off the ground and flew towards me.

I could barely feel my body falling against the floor and felt my breath caught in my throat.

I felt like an athlete that just ran 80 meters in 17 seconds. How much strength was behind his hands as they gripped my throat? As my breath ran out, I quickly felt dizzy.

Kak.

I let out a croak that only a bird-like beast would make.

“G-G-Granius…”

Would Granius not come a little faster today? For a split second, I wondered why I did not have my own knight in shining armour who would rescue me in times of distress like these. It was painful and shocking. I was annoyed at the fact that I could not take care of this by myself because of my age.

Why? Why? Only me?

With my neck being crushed, I managed to place my hand on the inside of the man’s forearm that was choking me.

Urgh.

I let out a groan of pain. My hands had no strength as I was getting choked. From where I was, I just tried to push the man off. My lungs and temple were beginning to feel constricted and I began to feel pain whenever I tried to breathe.

“Kak. Y-you…”

This bastard was a thief, right? My words only came out as huffs of air. The man seemed to only now realise that his arm was dripping blood and was startled. His blue eyes flickered around the room before he jumped out and ran away.

“Over there!”

The window! I ran over and arrived at the window only to be about 10 seconds late. All I caught was the sight of the back of the man who was now running far far away.

I looked behind me.

‘Stairs to the first floor!’

This was a window on the second floor. Since I had already been used to dying so many times, my body moved first without even being able to process any plan of action.

Only after I jumped did I think.

My diary is empty, right?

Although I might no longer survive, my body was still dull to pain.

‘If nothing in my body breaks, I could still chase him and scream for help!’

As soon as I began planning how I could get the least amount of pain from this, a gust of wind blew around me, lifting me before placing me gently onto the ground.

“Child?”

“Sir Penne!”

Without being able to say a word of thanks to Penne, I noticed the man still running away. I was too late! At the end of the straight path, I could see the hem of his black clothes aflutter as the man turned a corner.

“Over there! That person! We have to catch him! He’s a thief! He stole something from Sir Granius’ office!”

Penne might have looked more flustered than me but fortunately he was a veteran Templar. After telling me to stay put, he quickly made himself afloat before flying to the corner where the man disappeared to. I clicked my tongue at the speed at which he flew. He was so fast that my naked eye could barely keep up with his movements. I fell to the floor.

“Ah.”

Sighing, I realised that my body had felt stiff as of late. I then laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation.

“I was not going to be born again.”

There was something else I had forgotten. Someone else could have reincarnated into a body in this world and have managed to survive before dying more than 40 times. It seemed as if I had to admit that I was pretty stupid now.

It would have been better if I had not been reincarnated in the first place but there were so many other lives I could have lead in the <Light of Rusbella>. I was good in my previous life.

Of course, people could not possibly live kindly throughout their whole life. Sometimes they would have given into their vices. They would have littered, jaywalked, got flat out drunk and sometimes ignored donations, volunteers and people from the Salvation Army asking for donations in the middle of winter. But that was no reason for me to live my life over and over again.

“I’m sure it was that necklace.”

This was too much. Was it a sin to try to forget about things while working as some errand girl? I felt terrible for letting it slip right in front of my eyes.

‘Ha, damn it. I can’t believe it’s being taken away.’

It was an important item that could possibly allow me to escape from Castor’s grasp forever. I did not know how the thief managed to find something that I could not find even after half a month but I could only feel despondence and shame when I saw it right in front of my eyes.

“Are you alright, child? Come with me, we’ll treat your injuries.”

After returning from failing to catch the thief, Penne carried me and brought me to the office.

Early in the morning, right before the Aedile arrived, there were supposed to be some troops gathering in the Aedile’s office. All those who have just reported for work, including Granius, were present in the office.

I sat in one corner, massaging my neck whilst I answered questions from some unnamed people which included both the middle-aged and the youths.

“This is tiring.”

Seeing how this body withered like a wet cotton swab after sprinting for only a few minutes, this body seemed to be of no use.

‘Still, it’s a relief that nothing’s broken…’

If Penne had not seen me jump out of the second floor window to chase after the thief escaping from the office, I might have broken at least a leg. I glanced at Granius who had been silent for a while.

“Aedile, the thing that disappeared…”

Unlike his appearance, Granius liked things neat and tidy.

But now, his office was in such a terrible mess, he could not even open his eyes. This must have been the biggest reason behind his anger.

The cool gaze from his sunken eyes moved around the room.

From the right of the room all the way to the left.

His anger did not burn. Rather, it was cool, quiet and deep. His gaze around the room felt like an ice pick.

He finally spoke, ending his silence.

“Did you get hurt anywhere, youngest?”

Ignoring the questions from everyone around us, he was the first to ask about my condition. Perhaps it was because he knew who I was. Though it was nice of him to ask, I did not think it was of good timing. Both the middle-aged and the youths looked at me in utter befuddlement.

“I’m fine…”

“She doesn’t look fine, Aedile.”

Penne answered on my behalf. Before I knew it, Soricks and a few other faces whom I also recognised nodded as well.

“He’s right. Our youngest was the one chasing after the suspicious man.”

“Yes. I managed to catch her after she jumped from the second floor. But by the time I chased after the man, he had already ran away.”

“I dealt with him for a bit but he was pretty strong. He was probably a templar of Concelatio (God of Thieves).” (1)

“Meta.”

“Yes! I think he’s a templar of thieves. Looking at the traces he left, it seemed the most likely.”

I did not know what was going on but all of them seemed to be immersed in the discussion as words I had no clue about were being thrown around.

As if I was watching the terms as they were being passed around, my neck whipped around at every sentence.

“Ah…”

I only touched it a little but the swelling seemed to have gotten worse.

In some instances, the pain of an injury only comes during the aftermath of the incident but was this what I had been through? I sighed.

I was so going to get in trouble with Fleon.

“Everything I stored in the office is safe. Our confidentiality is fine. That rat stole the wrong thing.”

The drawer that I struggled to open with the key before had been half destroyed. He fished out a long gold chain from the drawer.

“That’s… the Necklace of Skelos.”

“You’re right.”

With small jewels embedded in the chain, a brilliant gold light shone from the chain as if it was a piece of the sun though the necklace seemed to have been broken as it looked incomplete.

“He couldn’t take it all and only managed to steal half of it. This necklace is proof that I’m a templar. The curse must have ruined his body by now.”

… Curse?

“Yes, I think so too. It is an important artifact that allows the templar to place a curse on the item so that if anyone other than the owner touches it, it would cause severe damage to the person.”

It seemed like it functioned as a security bell. My eyes glimmered at what was in Granius’ hands. What, only half was left?

So could I take that and give it to Hernandez?

Would I get cursed too?

“Well, first put out a high alert and capture anyone you think is suspicious. Penne, draw a sketch with Soricks.”

“Yes.”

After releasing what was in his hands, Granius dissolved the gathering before sending them all out. In the midst, Penne and Soricks tried to bring me so that they could treat me but for some reason the Aedile kept me in his office, leaving only him and me in the room.

“Princess.”

He called me by my address for the first time.

“Are you alright?”

Having been staring at the floor for the whole time, my head shot up and looked at him. Sitting in such a large chair, it made Granius himself look bigger like a solid rock.

“No one’s here so you can speak to me comfortably.”

When I thought about how he told me that he knew who I was not too long ago, he must have been hiding his serious and firm self by acting like a friendly uncle who liked to throw jokes. Like smelted iron, did he have such dignity as the head of office?

“… Yes. I’m fine. It was nothing.”

At times like this, I was reminded of the fact that though I was reincarnated in the body of a princess, my soul was still that of a normal citizen. I did not like reigning nor oppressing others. I just hoped that I could eat and live well but it seemed that it would be quite difficult to do in this life.

“I’m sorry. I know that your safety may not be in my jurisdiction but I should be responsible since your life was almost jeopardised in my territory.”

“I won’t die just from falling from the second floor.”

I only smiled awkwardly and shook my head because I could not say what I knew.

“… I’m talking about the fact that you’ve been hurt quite badly because of the intruder.”

Actually, when Penne was talking, he made it sound like I was dropped by the intruder, masking the fact that I jumped myself. I kept silent about it since I did not think the truth would be necessary. Then, behind his messy gray hair, he looked at me with a dimmed gaze.

“Did the Crown Prince teach you all that?”

He asked solemnly.

Crown Prince? Castor? Why did his name appear here?

T/N:

it seems like it’s safe to assume that the cp did it on purpose since it looks like the fact the necklace was cursed was common knowledge… but who knows ur guess is as good as mine!

(1): I direct translated what the author wrote and googled it and found out it was latin for concealment! Cool! But keep in mind that the god of thieves in roman mythology is Mercurious or Laverna (both different Gods catering to different aspects of thieving)